The first of the three was called Family Business, written by, produced by and starring Julia Genoveva. The play centers around a family owned funeral home, run by three sisters. Elizabeth (Alex Celeste Muniz) wants to honor the promise she made to their parents and keep the funeral home running. Jessica (Genoveva) is fed up with the home and, it seems, her sisters. Jules (Cherish Monique Duke) doesn't seem--at first--to care about anything. Until Angel (Lodric D. Collins) appears. Jessica falls in love at first sight, but Angel asks Liz out instead. Suddenly Jules, seeing her family slipping apart, feels the urge to keep her sisters together, at any cost, no matter how melodramatic. The script doesn't offer much and Mia Anderson's direction does not help, particularly in the case of the play's writer/star, who has created Jessica to be whiny and self-centered with little perspective on how ridiculous she sounds with almost every line. The main problem, though, is the play which is inconsistent and doesn't seem to be about anything except petty problems of petty people. Muniz and Collins rose to the occasion, offering not only the most realistic acting, but also the most honest relationship. Still, the play seemed like the round table cloth placed on the square table in one scene. Everything was in the right place, yet nothing really fit.
Next up came Pervert, written and directed by Dean Preston, which was certainly several steps up from its predecessor, though not without room for improvement. Pervert at least has something to say, though exactly what it is gets a little lost somewhere within the play. Still, the play raises some serious issues, and though it doesn't answer all of its questions, it attempts to tell a story that matters. The plot somewhat mimics David Mamet's Oleanna, a college campus story of the clash between a teacher and his female student when his actions are percieved as sexual harassment, though the male and female in Preston's play are both students. Kaitlyn (Jesikah Murray) likes to track down sickos in chat rooms and tempt their perversions. But when an online chat leads her to a conversation with classmate Eddie (Charlie Solis) she decides to take action and expose him in the school's newspaper. Her article, intending to warn female students against perverts, defames Eddie. His attempts to find out why she targeted him escalate until both students find themselves in the Dean's office. Solis is an honest actor, though his energy doesn't always match that of his cast-mates, especially Murray, with who he shares most of his stage time. Victoria Curtain and Emily Rupp bring a nice air of humor to the mostly grim play as Kaitlyn's friends Emma and Rebecca, and Brandon Peker is delightful as Eddie's friend, would-be womanizer Walker. The necessary grounding and maturity is provided by Bobbi Owens in the role of Dean Hodstern. The biggest difference between Oleanna and Pervert is that where Mamet makes it difficult to discern who is right and who is wrong, Preston has clearly marked Kaitlyn as manipulative and dishonest in her indecent exposé. I look forward to seeing where this play goes. At the moment, there are three endings and it's difficult to tell exactly what the play wants to be about, but it raises topics that deserve the scrutiny the play gives them: What exactly makes a pervert? When does a perversion become a danger? And who are you actually talking to in that internet chat room?
The final play that I saw was entitled Chinatown is Full of Rooms or (Kiss)(Kiss)(Purr). This remarkable play by Seth Moore seemed to be two plays in one. One one side of the stage a man and a woman, named only + (Leigh Adel-Arnold) and -- (Sean Tant), are together in bed under accidental circumstances for the first time since their relationship ended. She needed somewhere to stay because of something that happened. He found himself at the same bar she was at for some reason or other. Moore makes it very clear that the actual reasons that brought them together aren't important. It was their need that brought them together. As they talk, mostly about how much they dislike each other, they slowly disrobe and climb into bed. Simultaneously on the other side of the stage a character named LuvR (Jessica Hendricks) has breakfast with a man she just spent the night with, and regales him with stories of her past lovers, particularly the one who died the same day a charcoal etching of him faded, in an attempt to... endear him? Warn him? Scare him away? Directed by Alex Bisker, the production is simple and honest, willing the audience to hang on every word, not in order to find the story, but in order to feel the need of all three characters. Tant is beautifully scruffy and rough around the edges as he attempts to woo his ex, not quite sure if the same lines will still work. Adel-Arnold presents herself as cold-as-ice, but every refusal she gives is filled with yearning and every glance back towards her ex is the glare of self-restraint. Hendricks finds ways to make the most absurd lines (for example, "I'll never forget it, it was so timeless") seem completely natural, so that you not only believe every story she tells, you want to hear more Most remarkable about all of the performers is their ease with language, as they navigate through a play that seems to move seamlessly between naturalistic dialogue and slam-poetry, rhythms and rhymes intertwining like music as the lovers explore each other, be it for the first time or the last. As the young woman finishes her muffin and makes her new lover an etching of his own, the ex-couple's failed attempt at sex comes to a halt with a cry of pain. She doesn't remember the things he wishes she did and he's not as drunk as she wishes he were. And it starts to snow.
The Manhattan Repertory Theatre's Fall Play series is no longer running. Visit www.manhattanrep.com for information on upcoming festivals.
